PS3 Yellow Light of Death.

[Flattus]

I dont know if i'm in the right forum for this, if not excuse me.

Yesterday i encountered the YLOD unfortunately, and ive been looking for self fixes instead of sending it in to sony for $150.

Basically i'm just wondering if anyone else has encountered this and fixed it successfully.
(Again, if i'm in the wrong forum, sorry.(If theres already a thread made on this, please link me ._. ))

[Shojin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70SgRDVcBo

[Flattus]

Ahh cool, appreciate it.

[Kaisha]

Bumpin' since I'd rather not start a new thread.

PS3 died, probably due to overheating as it's been shooting hot air out the top (I use it vertically) the last year or so, with the fan usually kicking up in speed even while running under the XMB for a few minutes. Is it worth the risk of trying to fix it yourself? I don't want to end up in the situation that an actual hardware component failed, and Sony ends up rejecting support for it since I opened it up myself, unless they don't care about that when it's out of warranty?

I just don't want to end up paying Sony $150 for repairs just to get a refurb back that lacks the additional features my fat has over the average model, as well as being fucked out of my save data due to the PS3 only accepting an HD its formatted itself, which imo is fucking retarded.


Also got my game stuck in there and can't get it out. >.>


[EDIT] Knowing the age of my house and its dust conditions, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a coating of it inside the machine, especially since I had it sitting vertically for the entirety of its life, which may have contributed to the aforementioned hot-air.

[xerodok]

The main cause for PS3s breaking like that are from it's surroundings; dirt, dust, etc.

Pull out your vacuum and suck your system out and clean it free of dust. I've fixed plenty of PS3s for people by just doing that.

[*Shinzon*]

If you open your PS3 you can't send it back to sony for repair. So I would never recommend opening it for any reason. There are clips on youtube that show how to repair the yellow light by sticking the ps3 in a box and using a hair dryer. The idea is that the solder on the heatsink over time becomes dislogged and will create a hardware failure notice when really there's nothing wrong. The Blow dryer will reheat the solder and allow the chipset and to reseat and if it doesn't work you can still send it back to sony. It'll also act to blow the dust out of the ps3.

[Minions]

If you open your PS3 you can't send it back to sony for repair. So I would never recommend opening it for any reason. There are clips on youtube that show how to repair the yellow light by sticking the ps3 in a box and using a hair dryer. The idea is that the solder on the heatsink over time becomes dislogged and will create a hardware failure notice when really there's nothing wrong. The Blow dryer will reheat the solder and allow the chipset and to reseat and if it doesn't work you can still send it back to sony. It'll also act to blow the dust out of the ps3.

Heat guns work better, but essentially it is a very similar fix for xbox 360 and ps3.

[Kaisha]

Pull out your vacuum and suck your system out and clean it free of dust. I've fixed plenty of PS3s for people by just doing that.

Should I just point it at every vent possible in both suck/blow fashion? I've tried using my own breath on the HD port area to no luck. Given how my PC looks on the inside, my PS3 is probably pretty bad, so perhaps it could be a case of it shorting something out, as I would assume if my PS3 overheated, the fans would have been going full blast like they were last summer at my place.
(which I didn't play it much during that time, extremely humid weather + very warm bedroom, didn't make for good conditions to have any electronics running and making the heat worse)

If you open your PS3 you can't send it back to sony for repair. So I would never recommend opening it for any reason.

The Blow dryer will reheat the solder and allow the chipset and to reseat and if it doesn't work you can still send it back to sony. It'll also act to blow the dust out of the ps3.

Wait....what?

Sony's website gives me the impression of any tinkering with the device outside of vacuuming will void any warranty/repair services.

[Jefe]

Wat? Hair driers won't do squat because you need at least 350C-400C if you want to try a reflow obviously a hair blower won't be able to do this.

The YLOD is caused when the joints between the chips and the motherboard break. This is caused by the heat produced by the chips. The fix you see above is a temporary one, just to back up your data. Noclean flux is used to reconnect the joints and will give you a better chance of fixing it.

I fixed mine and it lasted about 3 months. I also fixed my friend's to back up his data, it still works (1 month). However, I've heard some that the fix lasted mere seconds. I'd attempt to fix it myself, recover the data, and buy a slim.

Edit: If the sys is under warranty, opening it up will void the warranty. A thing to note, when I spoke w/ the Sony rep. he said that although I opened the sys they'd attempt to fix it but I wouldn't be able to get a refub.

[Shojin]

Edit: If the sys is under warranty, opening it up will void the warranty. A thing to note, when I spoke w/ the Sony rep. he said that although I opened the sys they'd attempt to fix it but I wouldn't be able to get a refub.

It basically comes down to don't ask, don't tell. Plenty of people have managed to get refurbs although they opened their console. Just play dumb, some people make up an excuse if they ask if the warranty sticker is on it, some people glue it back on, but usually by the time they get the console, they just don't give a shit and seeing as you've already paid, you'll get the refurb. This probably won't work if you don't pay though, so don't try it if you're trying to get it fixed for free under the warranty.

[Kaisha]

I'll be playing coy and trying to squeeze some options out of them, especially if I'm paying $150 for a refurb. Primarily want my own PS3 back (for the sake of my save data), if not, then at least a model with BC/4-usb ports as I make use of both.

Warranty sticker I'd have to use a heat gun to get off, otherwise if I peel it, part of its residue comes off and leaves a big stinking "VOID" lettering on the sticker. Going to weigh my options after I talk with Sony, whenever the heck I get my sleep schedule in order so I'm awake (and not dead tired) during their office hours.

If i do send it in and it takes them awhile, they better damn well reimburse my PS+ subscription for a month, as there isn't any means of accessing PS3 content for downloading on the Store on any other device.
(a big oversight imo. Would be a nice feature if you could buy stuff off PSN at work and have it auto-queue to your PS3s download list to be ready for when you're back)

[Shojin]

You won't get your same PS3 back, but you will get the same model back, if you send in a 60gb launch unit with BC, you'll get a 60gb unit with BC back. They'll also give you an option to exchange it for a slim instead.

[Kaisha]

Any chance they offer some wizardry services for getting the HD to transfer to the refurb also? I really don't know why the PS3 doesn't have a built-in function for doing that...


And yeah, not exchanging for a slim, I'd be better off buying a new one if so, so I can pay $50 more and get it warrantied for 3 years. (<3 PS+ discounts)

[Shojin]

Nope. What I would recommend is buying a slim and fixing your old 60gb, use the ethernet transfer to get all your saves including the locked ones then do whatever you want with the 60gb. Chances are it will work for a few months, sometimes it'll stay fixed for 6+ months, I've heard some say they fix it for good. So you could either keep it around, trade it in someplace, or sell it to someone (which I wouldn't do, because it's kind of an asshole-ish thing to do, but it happens a lot which is why you should never buy used PS3's off of eBay.)

[Kaisha]

Went with the Killzone3 PS3 Slim bundle since it ended up being cheaper than paying to repair my PS3 fat, which would have ran $200, so I figured $299 (+ tax) that netted me a PS3 with 1yr warranty (vs. 3month), a brand new game, and another controller was the better offer, even if it came at the cost of no PS2 BC.

Took me awhile to get my GT5 disc out of my dead PS3, and fucking christ that thing had dust up the arse in there. Going to do a more thorough cleaning on it whenever I attempt to reflow it, as I want all my data back. It's fucking retarded that the PS3's back utility (made one couple weeks back before my 500gb HD upgrade) doesn't restore jackshit outside of PS3 saves that are copy-protected when it isn't the same PS3.

I mean, my PSN account is on it, and the system is authenticated, why is Sony saying I cannot have my data back? Even harmless stuff like PSX/PS2 saves they consider under the realm of DRM, so I lost all my game progress for the PSX titles I got from PS+, and for some reason all my dynamic themes are corrupted, even though this exact same backup worked 100% fine on my Fat when I used it. Oh well, time to redownload 60gb of patches, DLC, and PSN games because of Sony's ignorance to the end user.


Hopefully in the future they'll simply just let you take the HD out of one PS3 and slap it in another with zero hassle, or at least after a verification process to ensure you're not just duping hard drives for friends fer offline use. ;/